Interview with Leverage Software (San Francisco - April 08)

While I was in San Francisco to cover FinovateStartup live on NetBanker, I managed to meet with one of the leading providers of social media platforms, Leverage Software.

Interview with Mike Walsh, Founder & CEO of Leverage Software

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup 08 (San Francisco)
* Coverage Finovate 07 (NYC) 

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on Vestopia

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08 .I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Expensr, another online community focused on personal finance
I contacted  Steve Markovitz, Chairman and CEO, via Linkedin.

With the continued volatility of financial markets, social networking sites providing investment information such as Covestor and Cake Financial are showing significant increases in traffic.

Now an evolution of that model has been introduced that holds even greater potential because of the superior transparency and reliability it offers. Vestopia, launched in January 08, is allegedly the first online platform to enable users the ability to monitor the private portfolios of professional money managers in real time as they invest their own money. It represents an important option – wisdom of the pros – to the wisdom of the masses found on social networking sites.

Vestopia, which is backed by LightSpeed Gemini Internet Lab (LGiLab) and Ofer Hi-Tech.   

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup
* Interview Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO of Mint
* Interview Shawn Ward, co-Founder of Geezeo

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on SimpleTuition

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

SimpleTuition, find student loans - multiple lenders 
I am in touch with Patrick Kandianis, Co-Founder and EVP, and Chris Stevens, VP Business Development, via Linkedin.

SimpleTuition is not a lender. They have partnered with a range of lenders and financial institutions to share more than 100 different education loan options with borrowers and schools. They work with many colleges and universities to provide custom loan application solutions and support financial aid professionals.

I invite you to check the post on the Student Loans Marketplaces posted by Jim on NetBanker.
 
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

SimpleTuition, find student loans - multiple lenders 
I am in touch with Patrick Kandianis, Co-Founder and EVP, and Chris Stevens, VP Business Development, via Linkedin.

SimpleTuition is not a lender. They have partnered with a range of lenders and financial institutions to share more than 100 different education loan options with borrowers and schools. They work with many colleges and universities to provide custom loan application solutions and support financial aid professionals.

I invite you to check the post on the Student Loans Marketplaces posted by Jim on NetBanker.
 
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on First ROI

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

First ROI, maximizing the impact of online marketing
I am connected to John Waupsh, First ROI's CEO, on Linkedin.

FIRST ROI is a full-service financial institution marketing partner (both online and offline).

The demo at FinovateStartup will be made with their sister company, BancVue, specialized in reward checking.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on Expensr

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Expensr, another online community focused on personal finance
I contacted Reman Child, expensr's co-Founder, via Linkedin.


Even though the online personal finance management space is crowded, with clear leaders like Mint or Wesabe, expensr managed to be listed as one of the 15 companies that will change the world.


Financials, Figures and stats
* Less than 10,000 registered members and 1,700 estimated unique visitors in Feb 08. (source: NetBanker)

They created the expensr blog back in June 2007.
   
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup
* Interview Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO of Mint
* Interview Shawn Ward, co-Founder of Geezeo

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on Diversinet

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Diversinet, a leading provider of secure mobile access
I contacted Nagy Moustafa, Diversinet's CEO, via Linkedin.


The Group's principal activity is to develop, market and distribute public key infrastructure security solutions for the secure transmission of data over wireless networks and devices.

Diversinet has a long history of innovation and world-leading expertise in the authentication security and mobility sectors.

On the marketing front, the website looks very much "web 1.0". They don't have a blog, and I didn't find much information on other industry blogs or sites like YouTube.
   
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on Credit Karma

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Credit Karma, track your credit score online
I contacted Nichole Mustard, VP Business Development, via Linkedin.

Credit Karma offers a new way to track your credit score and a unique way to benefit from it. For the first time you can get a truly free credit score with no hidden costs or obligations. Based on your score, you gain access to exclusive offers from companies that value your creditworthiness.

They recently launched the Credit Karma Blog. The blogroll is short. It is (of course) linked to NetBanker, but more surprisingly it is also linked to the official Prosper blog. But is it really a surprise when you have Prosper's Founder & CEO, Chris Larsen, as one of your investors...
 
I invite you to check the coverage of Credit Karma on NetBanker.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup
* Interview Chris Larsen, Founder & CEO of Prosper
 

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on Motley Fool CAPS

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Caps, leveraging the knowledge of the Motley Fool's community
Caps is competiting with SocialPicks in the "stock picking 2.0" space.


Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup
* Coverage Finovate 2007

Banking 2.0 V-News: Focus on Wells Fargo

From my opinion, Wells Fargo is "The" perfect example of how a bank should leverage the web 2.0. Tim Collins, SVP Experiential Marketing, and Ed Terpening, VP Social Media, surely have two of the most exciting jobs in the banking industry!

Back in 2005, Wells Fargo became one of the most innovative banks online when they became the first major bank to have a presence on Second Life.

vSafe: online storage facility
Last week, Wells Fargo announced the launch of v-Safe, another innovative service available online.
 
The service will allow customers to securely store documents such as financial statements, loan and tax documents, wills, passports and birth, marriage and death certificates in an electronically secure centralised location.

In the UK, BT successfully launched its BT Digital Vault service. And O2 is currently extensively promoting its O2 Bluebook service.
WF's goal is surely to increase stickiness, customer retention. Will they also manage to somehow increase the share of wallet of their users?

According to you, is it the role of telcos or banks to help us store our valuable documents?

I welcome another innovative initiative from Wells Fargo, but shouldn't banks focus first on increasing the level of security of online banking? Many customers are still not comfortable with banking online... Are they ready to trust their bank and store non-financial documents online? Won't they see that as another way for banks to profile them?
 
Related articles on Visible Banking
* Wells Fargo 2.0
* Wells Fargo co-Founds "the Blog Council"
* Interview Erik Hauser, Creative Director @ Swivel Media
* CenterStage: Wells Fargo First Consumer-Generated Marketing Program

News on finextra: Wells Fargo's online initiatives
Please note that the list is not exhaustive.

* Wells Fargo unveils online storage service - 20/03/08
* The Blog Council is born with Wells Fargo as co-founder - 10/12/07
* Wells Fargo introduces online workstation for commercial customers - 18/10/07
* Why Wells Fargo left Second Life - 13/06/07
* Wells' Web makeover woos punters and analysts- 25/05/07
* Wells Fargo introduces Webcast series for small businesses - 26/04/07
* Wells Fargo: Adventures in the blogosphere - 30/03/07

Another web 2.0 initiative "behind the firewall": Scotiabank launches a social network for staff

Most large organizations, banks included, struggle to share information and leverage the breadth of knowledge available internally. Most of them still work in silos.

Expensive Knowledge Management or Human Capital Management systems are available, but now I am glad to see more and more banks leveraging web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis and social networks.

Yesterday, Canada's Scotiabank announced the launch of their internal web 2.0 platform. The "social networking" platform is based on Microsoft's Office SharePoint Server 2007.

MS SharePoint is an excellent collaborative platform, but I wouldn't describe its out-of-the-box version as "a social networking" platform. Yes, You can create your profile on your MySite section. But the bank still has a lot of customization to do such as adding new "lists" (fields) and improving the layout...

I have spotted an interesting fact in the article: "As part of the programme, the bank is creating online user profiles for staff members."

Does it simply mean that the bank will create their employees MySite on their behalf? Or are they going to pre-fill the profiles with basic information only or extra info available on their cvs?

Every social network's top 2 challenges are to increase its member base, and the quality of their profiles. There is no point having a profile on Linkedin if people can't find you!

Whatever the platform, engaging with your employees is the real challenge
With "behind the firewall" projects, I believe the challenge lies in educating people, convincing them, urging them to contribute. The platform needs to be simple to use and intuitive, period.

You can roll out "the best" social networking platform, but the success of your initiative will mainly rely on the quality of profiles, the adoption of the platform from your employees, and their (valuable) contribution.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Banking 2.0 V-News: the 4 kinds of social media projects
* Wetpac Enterprise 2.0: unleash the potential of web 2.0 "behind the firewall"